RAFAH, Egypt, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, ahead of the expected opening of the crossing to bring necessary assistance to the besieged Palestinian enclave.
At the Rafah crossing, the only border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Guterres said the large convoy full of food and medicine was “the difference between life and death for the (Palestinian) people.”
“We absolutely need these trucks as quickly as possible and as many as necessary,” the UN chief said, adding that trucks must enter the Gaza Strip every day “to provide sufficient support to Gazans.”
Before the press conference, the UN chief inspected the aid convoy that has been waiting for days to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing.
About 175 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, medical supplies, food and blankets were lined up near the border crossing, waiting to enter the Gaza Strip but were prevented from doing so by Israeli bombing.
Hours earlier, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that the parties concerned were close to reaching an agreement on the modalities of the aid operation and that the first delivery would begin around the next day, according to a UN press release .
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his American counterpart Joe Biden recently held a telephone conversation and agreed to provide humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing in a “sustainable manner.”
On October 7, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) fired thousands of rockets into Israel in a rare surprise attack, to which Israel responded with massive air offensives against Gaza and punitive measures, including a siege of the enclave and the cutting off of supplies of water, electricity, fuel and other essential goods.
The current conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has reached its fourteenth day, has left more than 5,000 people dead on both sides and left many others in an acute humanitarian crisis. End